A former Chinese whizkid who entered university at the age of 10 and was already a PhD candidate in Applied Mathematics at 16, spends his days doing nothing and relies on his parents for money.

Zhang Xinyang had always been destined for greatness. At just two and a half years old, he learned over a thousand Chinese characters within three months, and by age four, he was already in primary school. Born into a modest family, Zhang benefitted from his father’s tutelage and managed to skip several grades. At age six, he was already in fifth grade, and by age nine, he was enrolled in the third grade of high school. When he was ten years old, Zhang Xinyang became China’s youngest university student, getting accepted at the Tianjin University of Technology and Education. His genius surprised everyone, but as he grew, his attitude started to change…

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While most 18-year-olds are getting ready to go to college or get a job, March Tian Boedihardjo, a Hong Kong-born Indonesian Chinese math prodigy has already accomplished both. He has recently completed his doctorate program and is now an associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Although he never liked being called a prodigy, saying that it implies that he didn’t have to work very hard for his achievements, March Tian Boedihardjo is definitely very special. he first made international headlines in 2007, when at the tender age of nine, he managed to get an A in both Mathematics and Further Mathematics and a B in Statistics in the General Certificate of Education (GCE) A-levels in the United Kingdom. I should mention that these entrance exams are usually taken by students aged 17 or older.

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Five-year-old Ramses Sanguino is no ordinary child. The boy is being hailed as telepathic after his mother recently posted a video of him apparently reading her mind and reciting numbers that she wrote down without his knowledge. The footage caught the attention of scientists who are now studying his abilities.

Ramses, who has a ‘high functioning’ form of autism, is apparently able to recite up to 38 numbers written out of sight. His mother, Nyx Sanguino, said there was no trickery involved in any of the home videos she made, adding that Ramses was special from the moment he was born.

“I knew even before he was born he was going to be someone special who would change the world,” she said. “Even when he was a baby he didn’t like toys, he just liked reading. He started reading when he was 12 months old and could even say words in English, Spanish, Greek, and some Japanese. When he was 18 months old he knew all the multiplication tables in English and Spanish and had learned the periodic table and all the atomic numbers.”

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